Addressing offending by young people will now be planned in the context of the development of Single Outcome Agreements. While it is important that work on this agenda links ultimately to the purpose of government and the five strategic objectives, all partners will continue to need access to high-quality management information which tells them about the efficiency and effectiveness (including cost-effectiveness) of relevant activities. Audit Scotland's report - Dealing with offending by young people - identified a paucity in the availability and use of such management information which presents a serious barrier to the effective planning and accountability of services and hampers sharing of good practice.
Since the publication of the Audit Scotland report, the change in the relationship between Scottish Government and local government has signalled a major shift in the role of performance information. No longer will Scottish Government set detailed targets linked to demands for performance reports. Local authorities and their partners will determine through the Single Outcome Agreements, subject to the commitments in the Concordat, what information will be reported to communities about achievement against outcomes. It is important to stress that local authorities will not be held to account for performance unless it is part of the SOAs, or a statutory requirement (which includes the requirement to demonstrate best value). This is an important condition of the empowering relationship reflected in the Concordat.
However, there is still a role for national bodies in supporting local areas both to report against their SOAs and to meet any other information needs they identify to manage services locally.
Preventing Offending by Young People - A Framework for Action contained the objective to develop a voluntary framework for management information to support work to tackle offending by young people, populated by national and local information. This will set out the kind of information that local areas might want to consider in planning, commissioning and managing services. A small working group consisting of representation from Government and the Inspectorates led to the publication of the Planning & Performance Improvement Framework on 27 May 2010.